Studying the acceptance of a robotic agent by elderly users

Studying the acceptance of a robotic agent by elderly users

  Goal of this study is to examine the influence of social abilities of a robot on elderly user"s attitude towards and acceptance of the robot. Experiments were set up in eldercare institutions where an interface robot with simulated conversational capabilities was used in a Wizard of Oz experiment. The robot was used with two conditions: a more socially communicative (the robot made use of a larger set of social abilities in interaction) and a less socially communicative interface. Participants (n=40) were observed in 5 minute interaction sessions and were asked to answer questions on perceived social abilities and technology acceptance. Results show that participants who were confronted with the more socially communicative version of the robot felt more comfortable and were more expressive in communicating with it. This suggests that the more socially communicative condition would be more likely to be accepted as a conversational partner. Furthermore, results did show a correlation between perceived social abilities and some aspects of technology acceptance, but this did not relate to the more and less socially communicative conditions.